Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood is set to announce the addition of Stan Kroenke to the board.

The Mail on Sunday says negotiations have been going on for a year and it is anticipated that a final agreement will be reached before the start of the season.

Kroenke, who o w n s 12.2 per cent of the club's shares, will then join the board's lockdown agreement, which prevents directors from selling shares to anyone outside of their cabal until 2012.

It means that almost 60 per cent of the club shares would be owned by directors and would effectively block Uzbekistan billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who owns more than 23 per cent, from taking the club over.